Uptown Magazine features Star Chef, Marcus Samuelsson and his lovely wife, model Gate Maya Haile on the cover of their Annual Gourmet issue.

The winner of Top Chef Masters Season 2, Samuelsson is an award-winning chef, best-selling cookbook author and the youngest chef to ever receive two three-star ratings from The New York Times.

Samuelsson brought his culinary expertise uptown with his new restaurant, Red Rooster Harlem. The popular eatery has revitalized the community’s social scene by catering to an elite, powerful clientele and celebrating diverse culinary traditions. “[The reason] we are doing this here is to preserve, take back, and present the heritage of black culinarians,” Samuelsson told Uptown Magazine. “You preserve it by doing it, you preserve it by having a restaurant, so one day working in Harlem as a black cook means something on your resume.”

For the full interview in which Samuelsson talks success, race relations, Harlem’s future and of course, food, pick up the UPTOWN Gourmet Issue on newsstands now.

The issue also includes A Seat at the Chef’s Table, a feature hosted by Star Jones where four celebrated chefs serve up savory must-have recipes and a rare look inside the personal life of CNN’s Soledad O’Brien.

Check out behind-the-scenes video from the cover shoot below:

What do you think of the cover and Marcus Samuelsson’s mission to revive Harlem’s restaurant scene?